COMPARISON OF ESTIMATION METHODS FOR TROPOSPHERIC ERRORS IN GPS RAPID STATIC METHOD

Abstract

One of the important error sources in GPS is the refraction of the signals through the troposphere layer. At the sea level, where we have regular atmospheric conditions, because of the tropospheric refraction, the total vertical correction is about 2-3 meters. In this study, using the GPS rapid static method, different troposphere determination strategies have been tested to seek for the accuracy/precision improvement. To correct these kind of errors, two different methods have been used. The first of these involves modeling the trophospheric refraction without using GPS observations, and the second one is to estimate troposphere during the GPS parameter determination stage. The results of these two methods have been compared to understand the best way to determine the tropospheric error calculations. Apart from this, for each method, different session durations, baseline distances, and baselines having large height differences between their end points has been used to determine the influence in those changes.